Firm sues Muskogee, Wagoner assessors

By Donna Hales

A California information service has sued two area county assessors over alleged “exorbitant and unlawful” copying fees.

Roger W. Hurlbert of Glen Ellen, Calif., requested CD-ROM electronic copies of the assessment database of all real property in Muskogee and Wagoner counties.

He enclosed a $50 check with each request.

But the cost is much more, the assessors said Tuesday.

“We have 46,549 records,” a Sept. 4 letter from the Muskogee County Assessor’s Office to Hurlbert states. “The approximate cost for our files would be $1,680.96, plus CD and postage and handling.”

Muskogee County Assessor Dan Ashwood and Wagoner County Assessor Judie Thompson say they charge what the Oklahoma State Assessor’s Association approved in 1995, which is in line with their costs and the law.

Hurlbert, doing business as Sage Information Services, filed the suit through the Tulsa law firm of Riggs, Abney, Neal, Turpen, Orbison & Lewis in the assessors’ respective county courts.

The filings state that according to the Oklahoma Open Records Act, the assessors may charge “a fee only for recovery of the reasonable, direct costs of record copying and record search.”

Hurlbert requests a ruling on the issues and asks that the court require the assessors to charge no more than necessary to recover direct costs of record searches and copying. Hurlbert also seeks reasonable attorney fees.

Thompson wrote Hurlbert on May 31 that the $50 he sent would not cover reproduction costs. She returned his $50 check and sent Hurlbert a copy of the pricing schedule.

Ashwood’s chief deputy, Stephen W. Ashmore, wrote Hurlbert on June 4 that an Attorney General’s opinion in 1992 cites a Supreme Court case, Merrill vs. the Oklahoma Tax Commission.

The opinion says a reasonable search fee may be charged if the request is solely for commercial purposes or if it would clearly cause excessive disruption of the public body’s essential functions.

Ashmore quoted a search fee for the data files being 5 cents for the first 25,000 records. The schedule shows 2 cents thereafter for up to 100,000 records and 1 cent for each parcel thereafter.

Thompson said: “The electronic age came to be and information has become very valuable to people.”

Most requests for electronic files of large amounts of property assessed in Wagoner County range from $1,400 to $1,800, Thompson said. And vendors who buy the copies consider that reasonable, she said.

Muskogee County District Attorney Larry Moore said Ashwood wants to charge a fair and legal amount for copies requested.

The Tulsa lawyer representing Hurlbert did not return calls Tuesday.

Prosecutors are preparing responses that have to be filed within 20 days of service, which is Sept. 26 in Muskogee County.

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